Americans with Disabilities Act: George H. W. Bush signed the ADA into law in 1990 as a bipartisan effort to provide equal access to people with disabilities. In recent years, federal courts have upheld most of the ADA, but have also ruled that some sections are unconstitutional.

John Kerry:

Description of candidate's position: Kerry supports strong enforcement of the ADA and opposes judicial and legislative actions that weaken the law. He proposes increased funding to the Department of Justice for enforcement and wants to clarify the insurance safe harbor provision in order to strengthen the act. Kerry opposes the Republican-proposed ADA Notification Act because he believes it allows organizations to avoid the ADA by ignoring its requirements until they receive notice of the violations. http://www.johnkerry.com/communities/awd/awd_vision.html. Both Bush and Kerry have declined to speak at the Americans with Disabilities 2004 Convention.

Quotation from the candidate: "I strongly feel that we do not need more judges that embrace the types of views that led the Supreme Court to recently strike down parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act - a landmark piece of bipartisan legislation that is the Civil Rights Bill to those with disabilities and the shining legacy of your great Senator, Tom Harkin." March 8, 2004, from the Kerry website.

Assessment of the proposal:

Positive: ADA Watch, a project of the National Coalition for Disability Rights, believes the ADA Notification Act is a threat to the ADA which is designed to help businesses complicate and delay the enforcement of the ADA. They explain that, "The disability community is united against this proposed legislation which will discourage voluntary compliance with the ADA and allow offenders to simply wait until they are caught before initiating needed accessibility modifications."

Negative: Scott Vinson, policy analyst for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (an organization that tends to support small business legislation), supports the ADA Notification Act and claims that the act is an important step forward for ADA legislation. He states that, "this bill would allow small business owners to be made aware that they might be out of compliance before they have to hire an attorney and be forced to settle."

Comparison: Bush and Kerry support the ADA and believe it deserves continued support and enforcement. Kerry opposes the ADA Notification Act, although Bush does not take a position on the piece of legislation. Bush also does not take a position on the insurance safe harbor provision that Kerry wishes to clarify in the ADA. Bush proposes to extend his New Freedom Initiative and Kerry offers similar proposals to help bolster the ADA.

Sources: All sources are linked to the relevant passage.

Link to Bush's ADA page

Link to Bush's ADA issue page